Winter Calls
by Mag8889
Summary: Continuation of "Bucky in a Bar"... Capitan takes completely drunk Bucky out of the bar... everything goes pretty well... This story is a funny heartbreaker , a kind of a bromance I like the most. No real slash, but you can read it with this intention. Everybody loves Bucky!
1. -Winter Calls-

„Come on, Buck! Said Steven while houling his totally screwed friend through the dark street, where Natasha parked their car.

The soldier shouted something melodic in Russian and his body crooked suddenly in the waist, almost pulling Steven down to the ground.

„Whoa!" Said Cap, barely managing to push his buddy back up. „You're much heavier when drunk!"

Loose body waved again.

Some dudes standing in a nearby alley started cheering. One raised his hand, holding a bottle of vodka and they all called in Russian. It sounded like a part of a march or patriotic song...

Bucky smiled half-conciosuly, probbaly hearing something funny and giggled. Then burped.

„So you do have some positive assotiations with Russia, Bucky...?" Said Steven quietly, forcibly settling limp friend onto the back seat, with some mute help from Natasha. Her face seemed to express condemntation and amusement in the same time.

The soldier moved forward uncontrollably and pat his friend with his metal limb.

„No!" Slurred Bucky when Capitan winced because of pain in his arm. Sober friend gently grabbed metal hand and pushed it back onto Bucky's lap.

„I hate Russian!" Continued plastered friend while Steve fastened his seatbelt. „_Mudak_!"

Natasha growled. „Bucky, shut up..." And she added a few harsh words in their common language, that made the blue-eyed face frown under greasy strings of dark hair. And then he coughed pretty heavily.

„Easy, Bucky!" Said Steven. „We're going... home." He wasn't sure how to explain to him not so comfortable truth.

Capitan looked at Black Widow starting the engine. She was staring forward, delibetary ignoring them both. „Thank you for coming and helping me..." He felt a bit guilty for pulling her into this „rescue operation".

„No problem." Not exactly honest reply.

The engine started. Sound of the motor mixed with Bucky's muffled grunts.

„What the hell?!" Natasha turned to the soldier, who became strangely curled all the sudden.

„Bucky!" Steven jumped out of the car. He opened the door, almost tearing them apart. He reached to his friend's face, now eyes closed.

Black Widow sighed, seeing obviously unconscious Winter Soldier. He looked so defensless, not like a monster that tried to kill her with machine determination.

„Bucky, speak to me!" Steven was holding his friends face, while all the feelings of loss were pushing back tho his mind. „Buck!" He shook the bulky body.

„Maybe he's just wasted, you know, blacked out, like people do..." Said Natasha with her voice more gritty than usual. Her eyes expressed a real concern though.

„He's a super-soldier like me... Something's wrong..." Muttered Steven. He tried to check the pulse. „He's cold!"

Natasha pressed emergency button on her phone.

Pale body was taken out and laid onto the ground. Happy Russians became quiet.

The woman was nervously talking on the phone, explaining something and answering questions. Capitan was about to start CPR when Bucky's chest rushed. A wave of pianful cough filled in space.

„...d_urak_!..." Shouted the man with vodka bottle. A few other thick-accented words left his mouth.

Soldier's face changed. He was pailer than ever, his eyes glassy. Body shaking.

„He's awake!" Exclaimed Natasha to her phone.

„Buck!" Steve didin't know what to say more.

Winter Soldier's breath was distorted. He tried to stay calm, but his heart beat crazily, his head was filled with pressure and vision foggy.

„Buck! What happened, what did you do?!" Steven leaned closer to him. Natasha's voice still in the backgound. They didn't notice a small crowd gathering around them.

„Uhu.. Okay doctor..." She finished and put the phone to her pocket. She looked with a certian shock onto the sick face, covered with filthy hair that Steven was just pushing aside. „The help is on the way! We have to keep him conscious!"

Capitan was paralyzed with fear, he was holding Bucks head on his lap, trying to talk to him, while his friend's body was tortured by waves of torsions. His pale, trembling lips were trying to say something.

„Move away, people! Help is on the way! You won't help by staring..." The Widow stepped up and chased away most of too curious bystanders. They were reluctant enough, seeing her determined face. But some people took out their phones shamelessly. No way this won't go to the internet soon. She just sighed and cursed in Russian.

„Steve..." Quiet voice, so faint, as if it really belonged to Bucky. Steve remembered that voice, back when Bucky was having fever...

„Steve... I'm sorry..." Glassy blue eyes frowned. „But I had to..." A heavy, broken breathing. Soldier's chest waved crazily as he tried to cough.

„It's alright Buck... Stay with me. You don't have to do anything else." Capitan tried to sound reasonable, but despair was ripping his heart apart. If he could, he would switch places with this broken man.

„I had to, Steve... I started remembering what they did to me. In clear detail... Day by day..." Bucky's voice broke down to wheeping. A deep breath, his body stiffed. Steven embraced him. „It's alright... I'm here. You saved me Buck, I'll save you..."

„I had to try out some drugs, they'd make me forget..." Said Winter Soldier before passing out.


	2. -It Depends on Bucky-

Steven couldn't hold it anymore. He fell into a vortex of dull, sheer sadness, when Bucky's breath seemingly stopped... again. He barely remembered screams and gasps of people, while he was hoplessly hugging his friend's unresponsive body, trying to make him somehow alive. He thought that he was weeping, maybe shouting some words that he would regret later...

Raw voice of Natasha managed to push him away from Bucky when a black helicopter landed, making gathered people even more agitated... some had tears in their eyes, he thought... others just kept on filming his personal tragedy...

Medical devices that he couldn't make apart, kept on beeping steadily, as Winter Soldier was silently fighting for his life. Lying quietly on the most comfortable bed his battered body experienced since the day he fell... down, into the freezeing, cold, whiteness...

The room was covered in twilight, steady work of a pump added to an odd mood.

Sam was sitting almost motionlessly next to Capitan, who covered his face in his palms. Sam's friendly and warm palm stayed on curled shoulder.

„How long?" Mumbled Steven with woeful voice.

Sam was a little tired with Steven's questions repeating every hour. He knew as much as everybody involved into this twisted rescue operation.

Falcon went through his own feelings of loss and his eyes came back to the presence, fixing on a dark figure on the bed.

„Within six to eight hours, they said..." Muttered Sam, trying to wear his best therpaist face but it was so hard, so damn hard.

„They said, he may not wake up..." Capitan's arms trembled. „I can't accept that. He's a super-soldier... he's supposed to heal... he almost killed me!"

Sam wanted to leave this scene, he's never seen Capitan so miserable before. But what he would do if his close friend came back from the dead, just to die again? He felt so weary.

„They did everythign they could. Tony came back from vacations to assist..." Said Sam with a weak irritation in his voice. „Now it all depends on Bucky."

„Yeah... they said it was a miracle he was still alive..." Commented Capitan, with a sparkle of hope in his exhausted voice.

„You can stop blaming yourself, Steve. You saved him, you found him just on time... He's lost, he's in pain, but it's still his own life... I hope you're aware that certain self-destruction behaviours were very likely to surface... sooner or later." Tried Sam, deciding to go to sleep after that awkward pep-talk.

Steven kept on looking at his friend on the bed all the time now. Sam noticed that his eyes became absent.

„I have to rest..." He murmured and left Steven with his thoughts.

It was close to 5 a.m. when Capitan jerked slightly on his chair. He grumbled because of an awful neck cramp. Then a harsh reality came back to him.

Bucky.

He was lying there, in the dark...

Steven glanced at the bed with severe resignation tumbling across his chest, a rough feeling of loss setteling in his heart again. And then he froze. Something was different. He focused his sleepy eyes.

„Bucky!"

He sprung up immediately.

A blank stare of two empty eyes... Machine kept on pumping air to his lungs...

Capitan leaned closer, to make sure if he's not hallucination out of despair. The eyes were still open, still.

„Buck..." He whispered. He was so afraid that his friend may just leave him again...

A very faint sigh...

Capitan reached Bucky's right arm, now combined with quite too many tubes. He delicatly grabbed his arm, trying if this would wake up James a bit more.

He paused, fixing his eyes onto the dead stare. It repelled him. This stare was a reminder of HYDRA's Winter Soldier. But he didin't turn away. He moved Bucky's hand just a little, hoping that doctors wouldn't get mad. Deep down inside, he suddenly trusted in Zola's genius, no matter how evil it was. It had to save Bucky!

Voice stuck in his throat, when he realized he is not able to say ahything coherent. He loved Bucky but the Soldier never left...

Bucky blinked and tried to take a breath, twisting his body much faster than his comatose state would suggest.

„It's alright." Uttered Steve, not letting go the hand. „You're in a hospital..."

Bucky sent him an agitated and confused look. Before Steven could react, the breathing device was pulled out by the metal arm. James rolled on his side when medical alarms went off, accompanied with patient's loud cough. Sweaty strands of hair glued to his face unpleasantly. He had to form a plan. Quick.

Medics dropped into the room, lights went on. Bucky started screaming, thunderstruck with such a welcome.

Dazed Steve backed off for a second, smirking shamefully. Bucky was himself again, trying to escape! Delighted friend almost forgot to hold him, so doctors could do their job without getting seriously injured.

He came alive with the rising sun.


End file.
